Flea

on the chili peppers newest album calafornication(sp?) he uses a distortion on around the world and wah wah on sum other song who's name escapes me right now, and he might use one on parallel universe. any ideas wot they r?

For the Californication tour, Flea's pedal board had a Jim Dunlop 105Q Crybaby Bass Wah Wah, a Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive, an MXR Micro Amp, and an Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron, in that order. The connections between are 8" Monster Cable Performer 500 Monster Bass Instrument Cables with custom solid gold angled 1/4 plugs available only to signed Monster Cable endorsing artists.

During the later days of the One Hot Minute tour, the positions of the Crybaby and the Q-Tron were occupied by a Boss AW-2 Autowah and a Boss FT-2 Dynamic Filter.
Earlier in the One Hot Minute days, Flea only used a Boss FT-2 Dynamic Filter.

For the recording of One Hot Minute, Flea used the Autoway, the Dynamic Filter, an Electro-Harmonix Bass Balls, and a dbx 120XP Subharmonic Synthesizer.

For the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Flea used an Electro-Harmonix Bass Balls.

The MXR Micro Amp is just a clean boost pedal. There is one knob on it that selects the amount of gain you want, and there is a footswitch button so you can toggle the boost on and off.

Guitarists use it when they want a clean tone but more gain for solos.
Flea uses it for solos and things like that.

In short, all it really does is allow you to make your bass louder by a preset amount at the tap of your foot, although it does have a very slight compression effect too, which will smooth out the dynamics of your notes a bit so you will sound a little more consistent and punchy.

The unit is really only worth buying if you need some temporary extra gain for solos.

Flea uses the wah on "Get on Top" and I'm very sure he uses a phaser on "Sir Psycho Sexy," although it DOES sound very much like an envelope filter. Go to a store and plug into a phaser and twiddle the knobs, and you'll be able to approximate the sound. I hate the sound of phasers otherwise (besides when used in conjunction with feedback).